Word: neale
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hard to imagine being like 28-year-old Shaquille O'Neal. At 7 ft. 1 in. and 320 lbs., he is IMAX big, a human order of supersize fries, a skyscraper in size-22 sneakers. NBA stars, of course, tend to be tall, but there's usually a sense of elongation, of a body stretched, like gum, until it is long and thin. O'Neal seems like a man who has been magnified. He is not just tall; he is massive...
...finer threads of memory and desire--Magic's no-look passes, Dr. J's finger rolls, Larry Bird sinking shot after shot. "People dream of doing what Kobe Bryant does more than they dream of doing what Shaq does," says NBC sports commentator Bob Costas of Bryant, O'Neal's telegenic 21-year-old teammate. "It's just human nature. They dream of doing what Michael Jordan did more than they dream of doing what Wilt Chamberlain...
That may change, because this year O'Neal is crashing his way into a lot of dreams. He has dominated basketball like no other player since Jordan. It's a wonder the league hasn't been renamed the O'NBA. During the 1999-2000 season, he led his team, the Los Angeles Lakers, to the league's best regular-season record while also winning the scoring title; so far in the playoffs, he's the leader in both scoring and rebounding. He was voted MVP in the biggest landslide in league history...
...Neal and his Lakers are up 2-0 in the best-of-seven championship series against the Larry Bird-coached Indiana Pacers. If the Lakers win, it will be the first title of O'Neal's career and the first for the Lakers since 1988 and the "Showtime" glory days of Magic and Kareem. Says Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, no easy grader: "This season he's performing at his highest level by far, at a level few players in the NBA have achieved. He rivals Jordan, Jabbar, Magic, Bill Russell; he's come into the absolute elite...
...Jordan was Lord of the Air, O'Neal is King of the Mountain; if Jordan played like musical fusion, combining Dr. J's jazzy, improvisational style with a rock-'n'-rolling, aggressive athleticism, O'Neal is pure hip-hop. "I love hip-hop to death," says O'Neal, who has recorded several rap CDs. "I live for the beats. In order to hang with the fellas, you gotta have rhythm. And I got rhythm when I'm on the court...